The Course of True Love Never did run Smooth
by countrynciscatlover
Summary: McGee is feeling left out of the team, they seem not to care once the worse is over. Feeling like he needs to his mind off of things, he decides to go out for a drink. This story is a response to a fic challenge.
1. People generaly see what they look for

**A/N****: This is a challenge response, from the user starlightscribe. This is my first time writing for a challenge. Some of the major requirements are that the team thinks McGee is fine after the Michelle Lee incident; McGee feels left out, so he goes out for drinks and meets a girl; try to include Jethro the dog as a somewhat major character; the only people that know are Jimmy and/or Ducky and the people in HR. The very last chapter will include all the information about this story.**

**Note****: A major death of an OC will take place sometime during the story. The rating will go up when I post chapter 3.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that are on the show that are mentioned, the. Will go show, or the quote. The characters belong to Bellisario Productions, the show belongs to CBS, and the quote belongs to Mitch Albom.**

|NCIS|

_"The news of life is carried via telephone. A baby's birth, a couple engaged, a tragic car accident on a late night highway— most milestones of the human journey, good or bad, are foreshadowed by the sound of a ringing."_

-Mitch Albom

|NCIS|

Chapter 1: "People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for."

McGee was mad at everybody right now. He was mad at the director for putting the team through the spy game. He was mad at Gibbs for letting the director put his team through it. He was mad at Tony and Ziva because he knew they were hiding something from him, and he was really mad at Michelle Lee. Because of her, the agency's reputation was on thin ice.

Now, Langer and Michelle are dead. He wished that all of the madness would stop. He thought Michelle was into him, but she was probably just faking it to get even closer to the team. All he wanted to do is get home, lay on his couch, and watch some TV.

He walked in to his apartment to find Jethro laying on the couch. It has been Jethro's favorite spot ever since he introduced the dog to his apartment. At first, he didn't want Jethro on the couch. It wasn't that he didn't like pets on his couch (he had blanket on it),he just didn't want to sit on Jethro by accident. He had grown up with small animals. Sarah had had a bunny rabbit; he had owned a guinea pig; his mom had a ferret; his dad had a small dog; and they even had a hairless cat at one point. He used to sit on them by accident. He gets people who don't want their pets on the furniture. It's just because they don't want sit on them by accident.

He fed Jethro, and flipped through the TV channels. When he couldn't find anything on, he slipped his shoes back on, and yelled out to Jethro that he would eventually be back.

He walked two blocks where he finds the bar. He walked in and went straight to the bar keep. "Tim, is that you?"

He looked up to see Colin.

Colin walked over to him and said, "What case brings you here this time?"

McGee responded, "Well remember I told you about Michelle?" Colin nods his head. "Well my team went on a mission today and to make a long story short, she was killed by a sniper. It is tough time for everybody, and it seems like the team is not including me in information about the case, because although I had my report done, they looked like they were still working on a lead."

Colin nodded and angled his body away from McGee, so he can't see what he is mixing. Then he put a tall skinny glass on the counter, McGee eyed it suspiciously. Colin rolled his eyes and said, "It's safe trust me. It's a good balance of strong and sweet."

McGee took a sip and muttered "Not bad," to himself. When he finished the first one, he asked for a second. As Colin put the second one in front of him, McGee heard a feminine voice next him say, "Hey, Cols. Fix me up one of those will ya? I just dumped that no good boyfriend of mine."

Colin nodded, and Tim turned around to see who it was. He turned and saw a pretty women. He told himself "A beautiful voice like that has to belong to that beautiful woman."

She smiles at him and says, "Hi."

McGee, being the gentlemen that he is, stuck out his hand for her to shake and said, "Hi, my name is Tim."

She shook his hand and said, "Nice to meet you, Tim. My name is Skylar."

"Nice to meet you too, Skylar." McGee liked the way her name rolled off his tongue. He waited for her to finish her first drink, and to start the second one before he started his second one.

Two drinks later, he looked down to his watch and noticed it was almost time for the band to start playing.

They each had four glasses of the drink that Colin served them. Now they are drunk enough to not be able to drive, but not drunk enough to forget tonight. Right now, they can't stop touching each other. Tim leans over to her ear and says, "One more drink for both of us. Then we can go to my apartment and have some wine."

He had his answer by the way her eyes lit up. They finished their fifth glass and waved good-bye to Colin as they left.

**A/N****: A little slow and boring, I know, but I will make it up in the next chapters. Until then, please review and let me know what you think. **

**-Kayla :)**


	2. The truth is rarely pure

**Chapter 2: "The truth is rarely pure and never simple."**

**Disclaimer: Not mine**

**A/N: Sorry it took a month to put up chapter two. This is not the best chapter, just a filler chapter. Thank you to all of you who followed, f****avorited, or did all three. Now on with the story, happy reading.**

|NCIS|

After they left the bar, they walked down the street holding hands, laughing at nothing. When they got outside the building of the apartment, McGee realized something.

"Hey do you mind dogs?" he asked.

"No, why?"

McGee took his time answering. "It's just that when I got home tonight, I was mad about something that happened at work. I went straight to the bar and forgot about taking my dog for a walk."

Skylar smiled and said, "It is alright. I am not allergic. How about you go get him, and we all go for a walk together!"

"Okay, how about you come up with me, that way you don't get cold out here."

She smiled and thought about how sweet he was, but it could be from the drinks. She hoped it wasn't.

Once McGee got everything ready, changing out of his work clothes into a running suit, he grabbed some bottles of water. He handed Skylar one of his old MIT sweatshirts. Even though she was dressed appropriately for this time of year, the temperature still dropped fast during the night. After insisting that she needed to wear it, she put on the hoodie. As she did that, her shirt lifted up, and McGee saw a bruise on the bottom of her ribs.

McGee asked, "What happened?"

Skylar thought she might as well tell the truth, as she had been told by her friends that she was a terrible liar. "Someone hit me."

McGee sighed, "I could have guessed that, but who hit you?"

"My ex-boyfriend. He was abusive, that's why I went to the bar tonight, to get away from him"

By now she was on the verge of tears, McGee shot her a sad smile and went over and hugged her.

He kissed the top of her head and said, "I'm sorry you went through that. Did he hit anybody else?"

She thought about it and made up her mind that she should not tell him about her son. He would probably just run away like all the other guys did. "No," she simply replied.

McGee smiled and said, "Good, let's get going."

He hooked Jethro up to the leash, and both of them headed out the door.

**A/N: Sorry for the long author's note and short chapter. **

**I was going send this chapter to my beta a few days after I posted Chapter One, but my whole left arm started hurting. I went to the doctor, and he said I pinched a nerve. Then on July 1st, my friend was airvaced to the hospital. She has hydrocephalus (too much fluid on the brain), and they ended up having to replace her shunt (a device to keep the fluid off). She was not realsed until July 17, and yes, I visted her during the time she was in the hospital****. I'm also going to start college on the 21st. Not only that but I was supposed to post this yesterday but Doc Manger was acting weird.**

**In good news, I got to meet Easton Corbin, and I'm going to a family reunion. I promise that next chapter will be longer than these last two chapters and a quicker update. Don't forget to review this chapter.**


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